6 thoughts on “APC – problems writ large”

Sloppy and sensationalist reporting by Rob Dillon.
John Ireland is the chairman of APC not Dominic Beck. There is no ‘tension’ between Dinnington and Anston residents, this was remarked upon by Phil Beevers who said ” Dinnington and Anston are joined at the hip”, Rob Dillon was either asleep or imagined he was at a different meeting because I have a clear recollection of the evening’s events and they do not match this report.
The differences of opinion at the meeting were between the people who think APC is wonderful and others who think it is not.
What Rob Dillon does not mention is 20% of the attendees at the meeting with Phil Beevers have never or very rarely attended Anston PC meetings so they are not qualified to comment on the workings of Anston Parish Council nor the events that led up to the unprecedented meeting with an Independent Person.
Under the provisions of the Localism Act 2011: ” The Independent Person will work with the Council’s Monitoring Officer and Standards Committee and provide objective and impartial views on complaints about councillor behaviour.” Anston Parish Council has been the subject of much negative publicity during the past several months and a lot of it could have been avoided if the controlling Labour group complied with the ten principles of the Nolan report.

Jackie Scott has certainly not altered since she sat on Anston Parish Council. She is still the strident voice talking a load of nonsense as she was on the council. She has not been to a Parish Council Meeting for c4years so Jackie where are you getting your information? It is my understanding that Jackie Scott was “let go” as secretary of the local Labour Party because of her unacceptable behaviour, so no change there then.

Whilst there were approximately 50 people at this meeting, the vast majority of them were either unknown or rarely attended a Parish Meeting SO having never witnessed the bad behaviour of the majority of parish councillors their comments were invalid. Unfortunately this was not taken into account by Phil Beavers. One parishioner who had only been to 1 previous meeting and that being the Parish Meeting told the gathering that the councillors are elected to represent us so we should let them get on with it. What a load of codswallop – they are not elected to do as they see fit nor are they elected to abuse the public. The situation which precipitated this meeting was caused solely by inadequate leadership from the chair and dismissive and abusive behaviour towards the public by the majority of Anston Parish Councillors.

It was very noticeable that most of the regular attenders at Anston Parish Council were not given the freedom to speak, a point commented upon by quite a number of other parishioners. In fact one lady aired her views a number of times despite having attended, for the first time, the Parish Meeting in April. Furthermore if we are discussing bad behaviour, consider this – whilst I was standing speaking at the June meeting, this lady rose and stood directly in front of myself, I moved to the left, she did the same, I then moved to the right, so did she, I then moved to the left again at which point she put a book in front of my face. She then proceeded to speak to the chair, over myself and what did the chairman do? – Took her points and ignored mine. It would appear she was emulating the behaviour of her buddies the councillors!

An onlooker
Hillary.
I witnessed the event you describe.The person involved has not attended parish council meetings but did appear to be well versed in support of the council. I just wonder how the information was obtained. Regarding the incident you refer to, I found this individuals actions most deplorable which reminds me of certain councilors actions in meetings .The fact the chairman did not intervene, reflects to some extent his reactions to similar events in council.